A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin
Everyone's read this - you've read it and now, well, I have.

I have been known to grouch about reading something that had a sentence worth of boredom, yet I am more than okay with reading these books at over 1,000 + pages to them. I had a hard time trying to describe this series to a person who has no comprehension of what this series is like, but half way through this book, I had the interesting thought that if any book series was meant to be an HBO show, then it was this one. What, exactly, is this series, if it isn't an epic anti fantasy whose drama and action sound as though it were written by an HBO television writer?

That was a compliment, on the off chance that you don't enjoy Boardwalk Empire.

Things ended in the last book on a bad note for everyone - well, everyone who was somewhere over 50% not evil on the morality meter. I wonder where ASOI&F fans could POSSIBLY have gotten the idea of calling this series anti-fantasy?

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It's really hard to talk about this book in the series in particular without bringing up spoilers, but in general:

1. The characters are many, so the list in the backs of each of the books are almost an absolute necessity and they come from all manner of points of view.

and,

2. Each "chapter", like the two books that preceded this one, come in the POV of a different character from one chapter to the next, with somewhere around five characters making up the characters whose points of view the mosaic of a story is seen through. This shift in POV is often a great experience and provides a look at almost all of Westeros all at once - and beyond. At worst, the constant shifting in POV can prove to be bipolor in nature, taking you from one emotional high from another, or just sheer calm at the drop of a hat. These shifts in POV proved to be the main reason that I sometimes found myself on a hiatus with the book from time to time - take this as a good or a bad, as it can prolong your enjoyment with the story but can also make you become very tried of certain characters, when their turn comes up for the focus of the current chapter. My personal least favorite became Bran, with Jon reaching in second, due to my love of the courtly drama and the adventures of other characters, when put up against the still boredom or the constant insanity in the north. But that may just be me.

This is truly the book in which all of the characters find themselves experiencing a change in themselves and their environments - most of the book is pure engrossing gold, which makes the less appetizing parts of the book more of a disappointment than it may have been in a less well-crafted overall story.

Not by far, by definitely the best book in the series so far, with the action and the drama at the hottest that it's ever been.